The River
This is a story I wrote last year. It's almost a year old, I've edited it and made it better (as in completely rewritten it, most of this didn't actually happen in the original), but it might be a little rusty, and it's been hidden in my Secret Book of Secret Secrets that I will never reveal because they are Secret and I've sworn to Secrecy. But I'm revealing them to you. So. Consider yourself lucky. READ NOW. Also, there will be some disturbing and gorey scenes, as this is a disturbing and gorey book. Set in Cuba in the future. Characters Hazel Mathias Solange Hazel.jpg|Hazel mathias.jpg|Mathias Solange.jpg|Solange Taylor.jpg|Taylor Marie.png|Marie character.jpg|Adi Taylor Marie Atticus Caius Cato Corrie Eames (EEMS) Adi (This list will probably grow because I can't be bothered to read through for every character.) Prologue I can hear Atticus, Caius and, Cato behind me. The river is my only chance. They have weapons. I have intelligence. They have strength. I have stealth. My one leg aches as I push forward on the crutches I made for myself out of a stick. I see the other escaped campers in front of me. We've been running for hours. Some have passed out. No one's dead. Yet. Chapter 1 They brought me to the Camp the day before I turned 16. Atticus, Caius and, Cato seemed nice, until one week after I got to the Camp, and I witnessed the brutal, inhumane whipping of another camper. Cato lashed at his body mercilessly, the camper's hands tied to a post with rough rope, cutting into his flesh, causing blood to flow down his arms. Blood flew everywhere, onto other campers, onto me. They untied his hands, allowing him to fall to the ground, and left him there, unconscious and covered in scarlet patches of blood. I was traumatized. I had my test the next day, to see what job I was suited for. The leaders are not very hospitable, and made us do everything. ∞ ∞ ∞ "Hi Hazel." She said with a wave. "I'm Marie. I'll be taking you on your tour." I was suprised Marie knew my name, then she informed me that all the leaders know the names of the newbies at Camp River/hellhole. Marie took me around the Camp, and introduced me to all the people that lead the 'groups' at Camp River. The first group she tooke me to was the Hunters. I couln't do anything but shoot a bow, and I couln't even hit a thick tree, let alone and animal. That was an obvious no from the leader, Jeremy. Apparently I wasn't a gatherer either. Or, a builder, cook or guide. Apparently I suck at everything. I didn't want to be any of them anyway, besides hunter. "Good Lord, can you do anything besides be terrible?" Marie joked. We then went to the medics. It was a dark and humid building, filled with the bodies of injured and sick campers, and most of them looked my age. The leader, was around 20, and was a very negative person. She spat on the ground beside and empty bed. "I'm Taylor. You're Hazel. This is the hospital and all that shit." Taylor was clearly not in a good mood, and never was. "Well, let's start you off with a recent injury." Taylor jerked her head towards a room, causing her light brown hair to fly off one side of her face, revealing three large scratches. She glared, and swished her hair back. I didn't ask. She took me into a room with scratched white paint on it, reading 'whippings'. Inside, about 5 people lay on beds, bloody, bruised and most of them with stitches, and one girl missing an arm. One boy sits up in bed, making out with a healthy girl, who I assume is his girlfriend. Taylor walked up to a boy laying down, unconscious. Strips of skin hang off his back, barely staying on. He's still covered in blood. "This is Mathias. He's sedated right now, even though he's unconscious, we don't want him waking up during the stitches." Taylor says, pulling out a needle and thread, and giving me a crooked smile. She leans down and starts to thread the skin back onto his body. It's gruesome, and some of the bloody tissue is left bare. "Clean up time. You can do this Hazel." Taylor told me. "Well Hazel, just take this cloth, and rub it on his back until all the blood is gone." Taylor has stopped smiling. I do what she says, and then a girl no more than 12 runs into the room. "Taylorweneedyourightnowit'sanemergency!" She huffs rapidly, a large run-on sentence with no space between the words. "Cool it Solange. I'll be there in a second. Hazel, stay with Mathias incase he wakes up." Taylor orders. Solange waves to me, her red hair frizzy from sweating. Mathias doesn't wake up until Taylor comes back. "Solange was overreacting. Someone threw up on the floor." Taylor slams the door. "Oh. You're awake." Taylor says bitterly. "And you're bitter." Mathias rasps. "Oh shut up." Taylor says. "Mathias. This is Hazel." Taylor huffs, pointing to me. "Hi." Mathias says, not even looking at me. He has a good excuse. I wouldn't want to move if I had skin hanging off my back. "Solange, this is Hazel." Taylor points to me. The little redhead waves exitedly at me. "Come on. Let's go look at a sick person. What about Adi?" Taylor looks at Solange. "Sure." Solange nods. Taylor spits on the floor, inches from Mathias's bed. "Disgusting." Mathias says. "Deal with it, princess." Taylor is not a very positive person. I follow Taylor and Solange towards a girl throwing up into a bucket. "Umm... Adi?" Solange says. "What." Adi's voice echoes into the bucket. "We've got a possible future medic here, and we need to see how she deals with you." Solange explains exitedly. She is the polar opposite of Taylor, who is negative, older, dark and has dark features. "Any other symptoms?" I ask Adi. "My hands are wrinkly and I'm dehydrated." Adi's mouth is covered in vomit. "Cholera." I diaganose. "Frequent food and water should cure that." I tell them. Taylor looks impressed. "Welcome to the medics, Hazel." Taylor smiles. Chapter 2 My first act as a medic was to help a girl called Abeline get Mathias back to his room. He insisted he didn't need help, but Taylor forced him to put on a shirt and let Abeline and I help him. Outside the hall, Abeline stopped, and I just walked beside Mathias until we got to his room. There was no talking. I went back, and I pretty much just followed Taylor everywhere, like a shadow. "So you're in room 153. Ask Solange where that is, she's in your room, and so is Mathias." Taylor said. "Leave me, Peasant." She joked, dismissing me. Solange took me to our room, way too exitedly, but I didn't care. She's cute. I went in to just Mathias lying there. "Hi." Solange greeted the injured boy. "Hey." I said. He didn't respond. I went and sat on the bed marked with my name in crude writing. Mathias looked up at me with his green eyes. He tried to sit up, but winced in pain. He endured it though, and sat up. "Damn it, that hurts." He said. I smiled. He was exceedingly handsome, and I had to look away from him, for fear of blushing. "How long have you been here?" He asked me. "A week. Why'd they whip you?"I look at him. "I told Cato to kiss my ass. He didn't like that very much, to put it lightly." I laugh and look away again. I'm blushing. Totally and utterly blushing. We talk for a while, Solange included, when a girl bursts through the door. "Hey Corrie." Solange says. "Why do they make us work in black clothes? For God's sake, it's freaking 40 degrees ot every day!" The Corrie girl flourishes her hands wildly. "You know you rant about this every day, right?" A boy who I didn't notice come in said. "Oh shut up Eames." Corrie says. Eames puts his hands up in defense. "Who's that?" Eames points to me. "This is Hazel. She's the newbie." Mathias looks at me. I wave with a crooked smile. "Cool. Nobody cares." Corrie snaps. "I'm getting the vibe, that you aren't a very kind or positive person. Even Taylor was relatively nice to me." I blurt. "How do you know Taylor?" Corrie hisses. "I definetly don't work for her." I retort, sarcastically. "Ladies, ladies, you're both pretty. Except Hazel's prettier." Mathias jokes. I laugh. "I'm stuck in a room with idiots." Corrie groans. "And I'm stuck in a room with a negative, egotistical, whiny bitch." Solange snaps. Mathias and Eames look suprised. Corrie opens her mouth wide and (thankfully) shuts up. I spend the rest of the spare time we have until dinner talking with Eames, Solange and Mathias. Corrie is busy being an idiot. I make quick friends with all of them (excluding Corrie). A bell rings, signaling dinner. We all get up and walk down the hallway, to the hall. I sit beside Mathias, Solange, Eames, and Taylor and Marie come to sit by us. We have a good time, and we notice Corrie pointing to us. Taylor gives her the middle finger, and she shuts up. Marie high fives her. Dinner is a small serving of some meat. There's over 700 campers to feed... but they should at least have enough food. A boy comes over to me. "Hey newbie." He says, jerking his head towards the kitchen. "I-I'll be right back..." I say suspicious of this boy. "Hazel, right?" He asks. "Yeah..." I say. "I'm Harlow. Can you do something for me? It's a big favour, and I know I barely know you, but please?" Harlow pleads. "Sure." I say. "Okay, so Atticus has this hollow snake walking stick, and the top screws off. He stores things in there confiscated from campers. He took a document from me, that I think might be able to get us all out of this hellhole. He'll literally kill me if I come and steal it, but if you take it, he'll probably be nothing more than mad, and he'll be watching you for a few days. Can you sneak into his room at night, and steal the staff, and bring the paper to me? Any night next week." He explains. "No problem." I smile. Chapter 3 The mission that Harlow gave me takes up most of my thoughts. I think about it when I'm treating Adi, I think about it when I talk to my friends, I think about it all. The. Freaking. Time. I try to distract myself with other topics, such as the fact that I've fallen in love with Mathias. We've started to talk a lot more, and he leaves me speechless. I know there are other girls in camp who like him, I've seen the way they look at him. Unfortunately, that doesn't work either. One day, while I'm on my break, Adi, who is also a medic and one of my new best friends, comes and sits next to me. "Hi Hazel." Adi smiles. "Hi Adi." I say. We sit there in silence for a bit, when Adi blurts out: "So who do you like?" My face turns into a tomato. "Come on tell me." She pokes me. "Nobody." I say looking away. "Hazel, you look like a tomato. I can tell you have a crush on someone." "Fine. I have a major crush on someone." "Who?" "Guess." I tell Adi. She lists off a long list of boys who I don't know, and then she gasps. "You like Mathias!" "No..." I try not to laugh. "Hazel, you look like a tomato that's been painted red, surrounded by roses that are bleeding. Yes you do. I swear to God, that kid never learns. He's been whipped at least 5 times since I've been here, and I haven't even been here a year." Adi laughs. "Creative description of how much I'm blushing." I hold back a laugh, and then Adi and I start laughing hysterically. "I hate you." I say jokingly. "I love you too." Adi says, giving me an awkward side-hug. I really do like Adi. She's such a friendly and sweet person. Two of the other medics come off for break, so Adi and I go back in to tend to a builder whos having difficulty breathing. ••• When everyone's asleep, I'm lying there awake, am I really going to do this? Am I that brave? Maybe this is one of those things that is on the border of stupidity and courageousness. I'm leaning towards stupidity. I get up off the floor, and do my best not to wake anyone. Harlow told me to leave it in his room, right across the hall from mine. I snake down the hallways, slithering to Atticus's room. He has no door, suprisingly. "Alright Hazel. Just walk in, take the staff and run out. Put it in Harlow's room. He left the door open for you." I think to myself. I see the ruby eyes of his snake staff glimmering next to him. He looks sound asleep. I tiptoe in, quietly. I reach out to take the staff, and grab it. I try to walk out, but being the clumsy fool I am,I have to knock a bowl, which crashes. On. The. Ground. And. Shatters. A string of profanity runs through my head, and I turn the corner just as Atticus wakes up. I put the staff through the tiny hole in Harlow's door, and listen to Atticus's footsteps. I go into my room, and close the door as quietly as possible. I woke nobody. I lie down in my spot next to Mathias. I'm trembling. Part from cold, part from the utter fear, and thought of consequences because of what I just did. I close my eyes and try to sleep, but all I hear is Atticus's footsteps down the hallway. Mathias wakes up and notices me shivering. I can tell because her put his sweater on top of me, and pulls me closer, keeping his arm around me. I have difficulty sleeping after that. I've just signed my own death sentence. Chapter 4 Over the next few days, thoughts plague me, along with headaches and weird looks from everyone. One day, everyone stops working, and a dead silence falls over the room. I look up to see the person who I fear most standing at the entrance. His cold, dead, icy green eyes staring at me. Atticus. To make matters worse, he whispers loudly: "Hazel, follow me." Reluctantly, I take steps forward, following Atticus down the hallway. We pass some builders, carrying something, being supervised by Caius, and just my luck again, one of the people carrying the something is Mathias. Profanity runs through my head again, and I turn away so my face doesn't go tomato in front of Mathias, and my face goes tomato a lot. Atticus turns back to make sure I'm following him. I am, though I don't want to. Atticus opens a thick door, leading into a dark room. Something hits me hard on the head, and I fall to the ground unconscious. ~ ~ ~ I wake up, lying down on a table. My arms are unmovable, being clamped down by metal rings, one near the top of my shoulder, and the other at my wrist. I see the glint of something silver across from me. "Where is it?" Atticus's voice says, revealing himself. "Where's what?" I ask, clearly knowing what he wants. "I think you and I both know what I mean, my dear Hazel." Atticus flicks a knife down my palm, and I flinch. "Where's the staff?" Atticus demands through gritted teeth. "I don't know." I lie. Atticus slashes my arm, creating a lengthwise gash. I wince. "Make it easy on yourself and tell me where you put the staff!" He orders. "I already said I don't know!" Lying is clearly not the best approach to escaping. I can see the anger bubbling up inside of Atticus, especially when he stabs the knife right through my leg. In the top, out the bottom. I scream so earsplitting-ly loud, I'm 100% positive the whole camp heard. Atticus smiles menacingly. "You like that?" He stabs my right leg twice. I scream again, but not so loud this time. Tears are running down my cheeks. "Where's the staff, my dear?" He asks. I can't speak. I choke on my words. He creates a cut on my forehead. "Where is it Hazel?" His teeth are gritted. "I-In room 154." I half-whisper-half-choke. "Thank you for your cooperation on this matter." He says, vaguely sarcastic. "Finley, throw her in a cell." Atticus leaves with one last slash of the arm he didn't previously cut. I feel weak as the boy instructed to throw me somewhere, picks me up. The hot blood from my forehead mingles with my tears, and people stare at me, shocked and appalled. When the guy carrying me brings me to a dark room, he stops suddenly. "I'll take her." Mathias's voice says, and my body is dropped into his arms. I feel myself being put onto the floor, my head in Mathias's lap. He strokes my hair gently. "What are you doing here?" I whisper. "Everyone in the builder's group stopped when they heard you screaming, and another builder and I dropped what we were carrying, to go find you. Caius wasn't very happy with our plan, but we resisted, and we ended up calling him a bunch of horrible names, and the other kid punched him, so we got thrown in here, and I have no idea what's going to happen." Mathias explains. "Where's the other kid?" I rasp. "He's unconsious in the corner. Caius pushed him, and hi hit his head on the wall." Mathias sounds tired. "Why'd you come for me?" My voice is scratchy from screaming. "He was hurting you. I can't let that happen to the one girl I actually like." He half-smiles. I try to smile, but a burning pain in my leg stops me from smiling, and makes me wince, reaching for my leg, then remembering, I have 10-inch-long gashes on my arms, bleeding scarlet onto the floor. Mathias picks up my arm, and runs his finger down it gently, it still hurts though. "What did you do?" He half-laughs-half-asks. "Stole Atticus's walking stick. Harlow thought there was something stuck in there that he needed. He said it might help us escape." I say. Mathias doesn't talk for a while. "You should sleep." He says after about five minutes. I nod weakly. Category:Adventure Category:Romance Category:Battle Category:Adventure Category:Romance Category:Battle